Pakistan has detained more than 200 suspected Islamic militants in a nationwide crackdown against extremist groups. The arrests were made after Pakistani authorities confirmed that three of the suicide bombers of the London attacks visited Pakistan late last year.

A Pakistani police officer escorts a man arrested for allegedly having links with a banned Islamic militant group Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao says most of the suspects were detained in the Punjab province. He says the raids against religious seminaries and offices of banned Islamic groups are being carried out to eliminate, what he called, a network of "nurseries" where militants, including those from outside the country, get training to promote religious extremism.

The minister says the raids will continue, but he denies they are linked to the July 7 attacks in London. He says the action against these militant forces is Pakistan's internal policy and is not connected to bombings in Britain.

But security officials are reported as saying a small number of detainees are being questioned for suspected links to the London attacks, but they have not given more details.

Officials have denied media reports that a senior al-Qaida militant directly linked to the London attacks is among the detainees.

Pakistan has been in the spotlight since it was established that three suicide bombers involved in the London attacks were Britons of Pakistani origin who had visited Pakistan last November.

The security forces moved against religious schools after President Pervez Musharraf late last week ordered them to uproot forces and institutions involved in promoting extremism.

The president issued the orders while addressing a meeting of top civil and military intelligence officials. He said the security forces must ensure that by the end of the year there is no material on sale in the market that incites religious hatred. "These should not be visible in the market by December this year. Weapons must not be visible. Stop it [and] put the men behind the bars," he said.

President Musharraf is expected to make a televised address to the nation Thursday to outline new steps to stop extremist leaders preaching at Islamic schools.

Dhaka: Police have arrested 11 suspected Islamic militants belonging to a banned group in western Bangladesh.

The 11 were arrested from a camp in western Rajshahi district and were followers of fugitive Bangla Bhai, who led the banned Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, a media report said today.

Police seized some documents from the camp and included notes on modern weapons and explosives. They have denied belonging to any underground Islmaist group and claimed that they had gathered for a religious meeting, the Daily Star reported.

They will be quizzed by security personnel before being formally charged. The government banned the JMJB last year and ordered the arrest of its leader Bangla Bhai, who has since gone into hiding.

Four suspected Taliban rebels were killed when a roadside bomb they were laying blew up prematurely in southern Afghanistan.

In the country's east, another blast under an army truck killed two soldiers.

Meanwhile, police thwarted a plot to bomb the capital, Kabul. Some 876 kg of explosives and 5,000 fuses were discovered Monday hidden in several sacks of onions in a vegetable market in the eastern city of Jalalabad, said Khalil Ullah, the police chief in Nangarhar province.

Two men were arrested and told authorities they had planned to bring the explosives to Kabul for an unspecified attack, he said. The two named some 30 accomplices in Kabul who are now being sought.

Rising violence

Ullah said the explosives had been smuggled across the border from Pakistan.

The news came three days after police prevented another attack on a major hydropower dam near Kabul.

Afghanistan's government has warned that Taliban and al-Qaida militants have launched a campaign of violence to subvert crucial legislative elections in September.

Over 700 people have been killed since a major upsurge in fighting in March. Authorities have warned that the violence is likely to worsen ahead of the polls. (AP)

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani military said yesterday that 17 militants gunned down near the Afghan border were all from Kazakhstan and included women and teenage youths. We now believe the entire group was from Kazakhstan, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said. He said the authorities recovered four passports and some documents and identity cards that indicated they were Kazakhs.

Troops hunting militants with suspected links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban killed the 17 in a clash in the rugged border tribal area on Sunday.

The clash broke out two days after US forces in Afghanistan killed 24 suspected Al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistani troops acting on a tip-off cordoned off a hideout in an isolated complex outside Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal region. The 17, including women and teenagers, were killed as they tried to break the siege and flee the compound in two vehicles after a shoot-out, Sultan said. One vehicle was knocked out and the other was crippled.

The general said the group included women and youths aged under 20, who also took part in the fighting.

These people were all trained fighters, the general said adding that women and young people received training in explosives. He said local officials and elders had tried for more than two hours to persuade the group to surrender but a gunbattle erupted when they tried to escape in their vehicles. The women hurled grenades when security forces stopped them, Sultan said. Troops recovered arms and ammunition, including detonators, explosives and bomb-making instructions. Sixteen locals who had helped the group were arrested.

Pakistan, a key ally in the US war on terror, has deployed about 70,000 troops along its border with southeastern Afghanistan to track down foreign militants in the tribal area. Taliban attacks in the southeast have surged in recent months ahead of Afghanistans landmark parliamentary elections in September. Al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the deeply religious region after the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 by US-led attacks. In a series of operations since last year, Pakistani forces have destroyed hideouts and training camps of militants linked to Al Qaeda and killed hundreds of rebels, officials say. About 250 soldiers have also died.  AFP

An MNF statement said that Iraqi security forces arrested 19 gunmen and confiscated a large quantity of weapons in three operations carried out near and in Mosul city. Moreover, an Iraqi Army brigade arrested two suspected terrorists in raid performed west of Mosul. The statement said that there were no injuries worth mentioning.

In Rawa area, MNF killed two insurgents and arrested three others, said the statement. The forces also confiscated a large quantity of weapons, after they were targeted by a group of insurgents driving a car loaded with weapons and explosives.

In other three separate operations, MNF soldiers arrested 12 suspects in western Mosul. The suspects are being detained by MNF, said the statement.

In Western Talaafar, MNF confiscated another quantity of weapons in a search campaign, added the statement, noting that all confiscated weapons were prepared to be destroyed. (end) sbr.

Armed with new powers from the governments emergency decree, authorities are poised to arrest more than 50 suspects in connection with violent attacks in the restive South, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya announced on Wednesday.

Authorities will begin to engage relatives and friends of 54 suspects being sought on arrest warrants in order to try to convince them to provide tips that will lead to the suspects being arrested, Chidchai told the Senates Committee on Military Affairs. The new decree gives us an effective tool for detaining them for a maximum of 30 days (without charge), which is long enough for us to wash their brain, Chidchai said. He explained that many militants engaged in violent attacks in the predominantly Muslim region might have psychological problems after being given wrong information about religion by extremists.

Young Muslims were being given wrong information about Islam and distorted versions of local history that inspired them to want to separate the southernmost provinces from the Kingdom, he said. Uztad (religious teachers_ are exploiting freedom of religion in the region to implant a vicious ideology in the younger generation, Chidchai told the panel. He said the government would dispatch officials to seek help from Malaysian authorities to try to track down suspects on the run.

A security official, meanwhile, said authorities had a list of more than 100 suspects wanted in connection with the violent attacks, which have been happening daily. The names and pictures of suspects have printed in a booklet, which has been given circulated among security officials on the ground. Officials have arrest warrants for many, including the 54 suspects mentioned by Chidchai, while others were regarded as suspicious figures not yet linked to incidents, sources said. Many suspects on the list are religious and community leaders who officials believe support the militants, sources said.

Local residents said they feared the sweeping powers granted to authorities might lead to the arrest of many innocent people.

Officials had previously arrested many people who later turned out to be innocent, said Mahamad Amin, secretary-general of the Village Heads Association in Narathiwat. The situation could be as the emergency decree gives officials impunity from misconduct in regard to arrests, Mahamad said. But Chidchai said denied this, saying detention could not be imposed without court permission.

Proceedings (under the new decree) will be much more difficult than martial law, which allows for the detention of suspects for seven days without charges, he explained. Officials have been told to attend a course on the new rules of engagement under the decree, spokesman Somkhuan Saengpatranet said.

The U.S. military says three al-Qaida terrorists linked to bombings in Baghdad have been arrested.

It says the three are believed to be associated with al-Qaida's chief bombing coordinator for the Iraqi capital. The U.S. military says the three surrendered in recent days without a fight after being surrounded by multinational forces.

JAMMU: Three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in a gunbattle with troops in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The encounter was triggered during a cordon and search operation in Kachblarie area of Poonch district, official sources said.

The recoveries from the slain ultras included three AK rifles, seven magazines, 11 grenades, two UBGLs, five IEDs, 210 rounds and some documents, they said, adding that all the ultras belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.

The Georgian Interior Ministry has detained a 27-year-old man suspected of throwing a grenade at U.S. President George Bush in Tbilisi earlier this year, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Thursday.

The detainee, Vladimir Arutyunov, is citizen of Tbilisi suburbs, the Interior Ministry head reported. Georgias Rustavi-2 television channel showed pictures of a dark-haired man it described as the suspect being hustled into a car by police officers.

The suspect killed a policeman in a shootout before being detained. He wounded another officer and was himself injured. At the moment he is in hospital under tight security. U.S. forces took no part in the operation, but monitored it closely, Ekho Moskvy reported. The White House is also keeping a close eye on the situation, said press secretary Scott McClellan.

Arutyunov was detained three days after his photographs were published in the Georgian media. The media reports also promised $80,000 to anyone who provided information about the suspects location, but it is yet unclear whether anybody received the reward, Ekho Moskvy added.

On May 10 a man threw a hand grenade at U.S. President George Bush while he was making a speech in the centre of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. However, the grenade hit a 10-year-old girls head and did not go off.

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